Manic Mien and Mannerism
by Nightsmoke
Summary: Tsuna can't understand why someone so talented and agile could be subject to such paranoia.


All characters © Amano Akira

_Summary:_ Tsuna can't understand why someone so talented and agile could be subject to such paranoia.

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_**Manic Mien and Mannerism**_

When living with Reborn, you eventually start to notice that he's more than a little paranoid.

With the few exceptions (including Dino Cavallone and the other Arcobaleno among them), Tsuna doubts that anyone else has actually had the time to spot it. They are too wrapped up in their own little worlds of obstructing mountains and esoteric storms that plague their everyday lives and prevent them from noticing much outside themselves. But even so, after you've lived with someone for the better part of a year, it would be quite difficult_ not_ to notice.

Tsuna had gotten his first glimpse of nocturnal lagophthalmos, or better known to the rest of us as sleeping with the eyes open, on the first day Reborn had visited him. This had been one of the very first things Tsuna had observed about his home tutor, probably because it had been so damn creepy at the time. Most people who suffer from this disorder sleep through half-lidded eyes. Reborn's however, are not just half-lidded but wide open, beetle-black and as shiny as dinner plates. Tsuna can never tell if that marble doll's gaze is fixed on him or not.

And that had just been the beginning.

**1.**

"Hee! W-why do you sleep with your eyes open?"

The snooze bubble popped instantly. "So I can see what's around me and wake up if necessary," Reborn replied, fully alert. "And now I'm going to have to punish you for disturbing my nap, Tsuna."

"No way!"

**2.**

"Why did you do that, Reborn?" Tsuna whined as Reborn promptly used a Leon-turned-sledgehammer to smash his new video cam. "My mom got that for my birthday!"

"I'll pay her back," Reborn said flatly. "I don't mind nature's bugs, but ones that require batteries annoy me."

"It's just a camcorder!"

"Which could pick up anything. I'll not have my student be in possession of such a device. You hardly need it, seeing as how you should be memorizing your surroundings regardless."

**3.**

"Tell Hayato that the next time he has any more unfortunate 'mishaps' with his dynamite that there's a fat chance I'll treat him. No matter how much he looks like a girl."

"I'm sorry, I'll make sure that he stays out of trouble," Tsuna replied sheepishly. "I'll even see to it personally, if it makes you feel better, since I know you worry. And, um, thanks for your services, Shamal."

"That kid, he's growing fast," Shamal remarked in Arabic once Tsuna had left.

Reborn turned to him and replied, "Isn't he?"

**4.**

Tsuna had gotten a surprise one afternoon, when he had come home from school to find something different about his bedroom. And with the rest of the house.

"Is there any reason you had door chains installed in my home, Reborn? There's nothing wrong with our locks, you know."

"But with these, even if the lock is thwarted an intruder would still have to go through the chain."

"Most people we know usually come in through the window," Tsuna observed.

"Of course, we will have to get locks for those too. I will alert the smiths tomorrow."

**5.**

"You do know you're holding up a line of about ninety people."

"I know." And apparently he didn't care.

Tsuna glanced testily at the faces of the people behind him in the terminal. "Do you have to do this every time we fly? Most people don't need to hold personal meetings with their pilots before boarding."

"You should know by now, Silly Tsuna," Reborn smiled, "we aren't most people."

Tsuna slumped, giving apologetic smiles at the growing line behind him. "I know that, but for once can we not create a scene?" he asked, noting and sympathizing with their impatience. "I don't think anybody's rigged this flight-it's a public airline, anyway. Even _Hibari-san _flies on this."

**6.**

"Reborn," Tsuna begins one night, when sleep strays just out of his grasp and thoughts fill its void. From his little hammock that sways gently in the air, Reborn replies, "What is it, Tsuna?"

"How does someone like you, who's good at just about everything and can do anything...how come you're so paranoid all of the time?" Tsuna winces in the dark, expecting a scathing remark or physical blow. But to his surprise, Reborn merely chuckles.

"Silly Tsuna," he says. "It's _because_ I'm so good."

"Huh?"

"One day you'll understand. Good night."

"...N-night."

**7.**

"There's nothing like a good massage," Reborn remarked happily as Sasagawa Kyoko rubbed gentle circles between his small shoulder blades. The sun beat down on Kyoko's patio, and Tsuna leaned over from the next chair where Haru was behind him trying out her new Spartan massage technique.

"You wouldn't even need one if you didn't sleep with your Beretta under your pillow," Tsuna muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"And you wouldn't need one either if you didn't get hit in the head with an empty glass."

"What?"

_WHUMP._

"OW!"

**8.**

"Um, Reborn," Tsuna stammered, watching as his home tutor produced a neatly-cut sandwich, "it's a dango stand. I'm pretty sure it's okay."

"Possibly, but you can never underestimate unattended food, especially in this climate. Anything can get on or in it."

"And you can put away that flask. I know you only drink Mom's coffee, but theirs is fine too."

"I have yet to deem this establishment trustworthy."

Tsuna purchased his favorite mitarashi dish, sighing, but not too disappointed since he always ended up paying the bill anyway.

**9.**

Shouichi knocked at his boss's door tentatively. He frowned when there was no answer, as he was supposedly scheduled to meet with Sawada Tsunayoshi now to discuss the Plan, as he called it.

Curling his fingers around the handle, Shouichi slowly opened the door and let himself in. He closed the door behind him, noting the loud clack that the double door chain made as its bolt swung side to side. "Tsunayoshi-san?"

He almost didn't notice Kyouya standing there, as the man hadn't made a sound. "Ah, Kyouya-san!" Shouichi pushed up his glasses. "I didn't see you at first. What is...oh." He had just noticed Tsuna.

Hibari Kyouya turned to Shouichi impassively. His hand stole to his belt, where two tonfa presumably lay under his jacket. "Shall I wake him?"

Shouichi couldn't help but inwardly shudder at Tsuna's eyes, which seemed to be fixed on him. Like topaz that had lost its luster. He turned to Kyouya. "He's asleep?"

"Apparently. And after he called us down too. How unprofessional."

After Tsuna had been woken up, forcibly, he turned to address his two subordinates. He took out a metal flask of espresso coffee and sipped lightly from it, and once he had done so he began to tell them of his plan, of the past, and of his death.

_end._

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_Author's note: _this was a topic I'd been wanting to write about for some time, and even now I wasn't sure about how to do it. This was a challenge, and I decided to explore more of the dialogue between Tsun and Reborn, as well as their connection. In my personal canon, I also see TYL!Tsuna with many of Reborn's traits and mannerisms.


End file.
